We all seem to be living under the old Chinese curse that goes "May you live in interesting times." Amy and I have certainly been no exception. 2009 was an unusual year for a number of reasons. The United States inaugurated its first black president. Unemployment rose in record proportions. The American healthcare system changed in radical ways that even the politicians who made the change don't completely understand.
On a more personal level, Amy and I moved out of state for the first time since we've been married and I spent Christmas with my entire immediate family. The last time that happened it was still the 20th century. It was the Christmas of 1996 when my parents announced their decision to get a divorce and all five of us haven't been together for Christmas since. Through marriage or adoption that number has grown to eight of us; additions who are all warmly welcomed and deeply appreciated.
My parents have developed a cordial relationship. I was afraid that things would be awkward, but everything had an eggnog-like smoothness and sweetness. We're not drinkers, but my parent's new granddaughter seemed to serve as a good social lubricant for all of us. On Christmas Eve we sang carols together and read the Christmas story. My father played the piano for us, just as he used to when we were all much younger. Some of us voiced the opinion that we had - almost - picked up right where we had left off as a family.
Yesterday I remembered in an old place deep inside the primal joy that comes from the feel of the strong and yet fragile smoothness of wrapping paper on boxes full of treasures and delights, and the raw pleasure of tearing off the wrapping and finding surprises that may turn out to be only tokens, but give lasting satisfaction. It's strange how my parents turned out to be right about giving being a greater pleasure than getting as I've gotten older, but giving is pleasure stretched out over the month running from Thanksgiving to Christmas. The morning of Christmas is a time to receive, and it's still sweetly satisfying. Everyone managed to stay occupied and entertained throughout the day.
Amy and I had the pleasure of showing my Dad our new apartment home. We found a new appreciation for where we live, showing off the amenities of our brand new place, rediscovering each as we went. We shared the hot-tub with my sister Abby and my Dad; the first time Amy and I had ever shared it with anyone. We came out feeling as though we had just enjoyed a massage.
When we fell asleep last night we felt as though the world had a new shine on it that hadn't been there before, like an old car with it's "new car" smell restored.
Things are still imperfect. Our times will probably still continue to be interesting. I have chosen to take the liquory taste of gourmet chocolate, the warmth of a fire, the sounds of my father's piano-playing, and the smiles of my new niece as good omens for the year 2010.
-Tom
Monday, January 4, 2010
Monday, November 23, 2009
One Meeelion . . . Words!
That’s right folks. I’ve set a goal for the year 2010 to write no less than 1,000,000 words.
The reason for this announcment? Accountability.
As many of you know, my wife and I have been participating in National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) and each year we’ve announced to everyone we know that we’re doing it. This is because we need the social pressure to make sure we meet our goal of writing a 50,000 word work of fiction in a single calendar month.
This situation is no different.
You should know that not every one of those 1,000,000 words will be fiction. I also write non-fiction for my living and those words will be counted as well.
This breaks down to about 4,000 words a day, about five days a week for the whole year. At my usual pace, this works out to at least two hours of sustained drafting each day, or less when you factor in my daily work. This is very do-able for me!
I came to this resolution when I heard an unwritten rule that professional writers have to write at least 1,000,000 words before they can be truly successful. Of course there are exceptions, but I totally see the logic. It’s sort of the writer’s equivalent of the 10,000 hour-rule presented in the book Outliers.
According to some, this work is necessary to learn just how bad a writer you are, and gives you the time to work out all your demons and issues. After that, the bad writing is out of the way and you can move on to the good stuff!
I’m excited to see the results.
To help ensure success I’m committing to incremental goals that will help me get to 1,000,000. I plan on entering the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) every quarter. I plan on drafting 10 full-length novels in the course of next year. I’ll write for my business blog faithfully every single week.
I’m sure as I get closer and as I move through the year I’ll come up with some other incremental goals, but I think those should make for a good start.
I thank all of your for your interest, support, and (should I decide to chicken out) merciless ridicule.
To 1,000,000 words! Here I go!
-Tom
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Knitting real lace
So tonight I finished my first lace shawl. I call it my first, even though technically I knitted up a couple less involved and shorter lace scarves last year. I was proud when I finished those earlier projects, but when I look back at them now, I can see how simple they really were.
When you have a piece of lace that hasn't been blocked, it literally looks like a rumpled old bag; definitely nothing to be impressed with. The blocking process, however, changes that dramatically. I forgot to get any pictures of the shawl before I blocked it, but here is one of the actual blocking.
To block a piece of lace, you first have to soak the finished piece in cool water with a touch of wool wash (I just use a mild detergent, since I haven't actually gotten around to buying any wool wash). You have to completely soak it, and if the yarn is thicker it takes awhile to get completely soaked through. For this project I used a lace weight yarn (alpaca and silk blend), so I only soaked it for about ten or fifteen minutes.
After the piece is soaked through, you need to squeeze the excess water out of it. You don't want to wring it out, because it can distort or felt the lace, and that would be bad. You squeeze it gently, trying to get out what you can with your hands, and then you roll it into a towel, squeezing out as much as you can that way.
After you get the excess water out, you need to set the shape you want the lace to stay in. They recommend using a blocking board with lines and measurements printed on it so you have a guide as you're laying out your piece to block. I used a piece of foam and measuring tape. You take pins and create whatever shape you want to form with the piece, making sure you get the measurements right and spread out the pattern to show it off best. With scallops like this piece has, it doesn't take that many pins. With straight edges, however - like the scarves I did last year - you can never have enough pins. You don't want to leave any crescents in a line that's supposed to be straight.
After you set the shape the way you want it, you need to wait for the lace to dry completely. With the wool I used last year, that took quite awhile - it was at least twelve hours before I felt safe unpinning it - but with this lace weight piece I only had it set for a couple of hours before unpinning it again.
After this process, the piece of lace will hold its shape until I decide to clean it (or, I suppose, get it very wet). At that point, I'll just take the lace through the blocking process again.
I am completely blown away by the beautiful drape this shawl has; it's way better than I could have hoped for. I think I picked a great yarn, and though there are many mistakes in the piece I knit up, I am very proud to be on this end of that process. I'm looking forward to wearing this shawl this winter!
-Amy
When you have a piece of lace that hasn't been blocked, it literally looks like a rumpled old bag; definitely nothing to be impressed with. The blocking process, however, changes that dramatically. I forgot to get any pictures of the shawl before I blocked it, but here is one of the actual blocking.
To block a piece of lace, you first have to soak the finished piece in cool water with a touch of wool wash (I just use a mild detergent, since I haven't actually gotten around to buying any wool wash). You have to completely soak it, and if the yarn is thicker it takes awhile to get completely soaked through. For this project I used a lace weight yarn (alpaca and silk blend), so I only soaked it for about ten or fifteen minutes.
After the piece is soaked through, you need to squeeze the excess water out of it. You don't want to wring it out, because it can distort or felt the lace, and that would be bad. You squeeze it gently, trying to get out what you can with your hands, and then you roll it into a towel, squeezing out as much as you can that way.
After you get the excess water out, you need to set the shape you want the lace to stay in. They recommend using a blocking board with lines and measurements printed on it so you have a guide as you're laying out your piece to block. I used a piece of foam and measuring tape. You take pins and create whatever shape you want to form with the piece, making sure you get the measurements right and spread out the pattern to show it off best. With scallops like this piece has, it doesn't take that many pins. With straight edges, however - like the scarves I did last year - you can never have enough pins. You don't want to leave any crescents in a line that's supposed to be straight.
After you set the shape the way you want it, you need to wait for the lace to dry completely. With the wool I used last year, that took quite awhile - it was at least twelve hours before I felt safe unpinning it - but with this lace weight piece I only had it set for a couple of hours before unpinning it again.
After this process, the piece of lace will hold its shape until I decide to clean it (or, I suppose, get it very wet). At that point, I'll just take the lace through the blocking process again.
I am completely blown away by the beautiful drape this shawl has; it's way better than I could have hoped for. I think I picked a great yarn, and though there are many mistakes in the piece I knit up, I am very proud to be on this end of that process. I'm looking forward to wearing this shawl this winter!
-Amy
Monday, November 9, 2009
Write or Die!
Do any of you blog readers out there struggle with getting distracted when you really need to be writing instead? Do you lose your focus and log onto facebook or some other popular social networking site instead of working on hitting your 50,000 word target by the end of the month?
Okay, maybe I'm the only one out there who has this problem. I am the biggest procrastinator in the world, and I REALLY know how to waste time when I'm supposed to be writing. It's amazing how interesting my desktop background can be and how many times in a ten minute block I absolutely have to save my file and check my word count. Let's just say it's not very conducive to getting my novel written this month and leave it at that...
We were recently directed to an site here to try something called "Write or Die", which I did for my Sunday writing session. Talk about a complete changing of my ways - I hardly recognized myself after so much productivity!
If you read the "Write Or Die" blog, it explains why the program was created, but to sum it up, some of us just need to be prodded a little bit with a tangible deadline and threat of disaster in order to get creative writing done. For the full explanation, go here. There are consequences if you don't keep writing, and they run as follows:
- Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
- Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
- Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself
Yes, it actually DOES start deleting your work if you don't keep writing - we tried it. Not only does it make a nasty noise, but it also flashes pink and red all over your screen until you start writing again. Remember that studies have been done all about how negative it is for teachers to use a red pen when correcting their students' homework? So how do you think that makes a person feel when their monitor suddenly starts flashing pink and then darker into red? It feels like the whole computer is about to spontaneously combust, that's how. I was so anxious the whole time I was writing that even though I told the program to give me 90 minutes to get my 2000 words written, I finished in about 35.
Holy cow, talk about an epiphany! So would I use the program again? You betcha! Will I buy the desktop version that just got released for $10? Yessir! Am I going to whup Tom's word count score one of these days? Um, I'm working on it....
-Amy
Monday, November 2, 2009
NaNoWriMo 2009
Well friends, here we are in November again, which of course means that NaNoWriMo is upon us again. Tom and I are plowing into our novels and enjoying the terrifying ride that is creating a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. Housework goes onto the back burner as we crank up our ipods and pretend the dishes sitting in the kitchen sink are not in fact starting to smell a bit off. Our desks are piled high with plot notes, hot chocolate mugs, and various writing tools and books.
Oh, and you can't forget our writing totems, of course - mine an excessively gaudy ring and Tom's a miniature rubber duck.
We're both doing fantasy genre novels this year - a first for Tom, at least. No, we're still not allowed to share our stories with you (it's against the rules, so don't ask until after the month is over :D), but we'd love to have your happy thoughts flowing through the ether toward us, cheering us on throughout the month as we drive to the end of the 50,000 word pool we're diving into. We probably won't be doing much blog updating, but feel free to send us emails full of guilt trips from time to time this month. It never hurts to have a guilt monkey on your shoulder when you're trying to do the impossible.
We went to our first NaNoWriMo kickoff party on Saturday night up in Bellevue. It started at 11:00 pm and let up to a countdown to writing starting at midnight. Because there are so many nano participants here in the Seattle area (we're talking a few thousand, very different from the couple hundred in the Salt Lake area!), there were about 60 people who showed up at the one we went to. Many of them - as you can see - wore their Halloween costumes for the event.
Talk about a strange silence setting over the room when midnight struck! There was a contest to see who could get their first 1000 words written the fastest, and there were prizes for everyone who got at least 1000 words done that night. We stayed until a little before 1:00 am and took away our special prizes (notebooks and stickers a kindergartener could be proud of!), but most of the group was still there going strong when we left. We hope to go to a few more write-ins before the month is out. It was great getting the chance to meet some similarly crazy people we had something in common with.
Anyone who is interested in joining in the November madness, we'd definitely encourage you to jump on in. We're only two days into the 30, and it wouldn't be too hard for you to catch up!
Happy noveling, all!
-Amy
Oh, and you can't forget our writing totems, of course - mine an excessively gaudy ring and Tom's a miniature rubber duck.
We're both doing fantasy genre novels this year - a first for Tom, at least. No, we're still not allowed to share our stories with you (it's against the rules, so don't ask until after the month is over :D), but we'd love to have your happy thoughts flowing through the ether toward us, cheering us on throughout the month as we drive to the end of the 50,000 word pool we're diving into. We probably won't be doing much blog updating, but feel free to send us emails full of guilt trips from time to time this month. It never hurts to have a guilt monkey on your shoulder when you're trying to do the impossible.
We went to our first NaNoWriMo kickoff party on Saturday night up in Bellevue. It started at 11:00 pm and let up to a countdown to writing starting at midnight. Because there are so many nano participants here in the Seattle area (we're talking a few thousand, very different from the couple hundred in the Salt Lake area!), there were about 60 people who showed up at the one we went to. Many of them - as you can see - wore their Halloween costumes for the event.
Talk about a strange silence setting over the room when midnight struck! There was a contest to see who could get their first 1000 words written the fastest, and there were prizes for everyone who got at least 1000 words done that night. We stayed until a little before 1:00 am and took away our special prizes (notebooks and stickers a kindergartener could be proud of!), but most of the group was still there going strong when we left. We hope to go to a few more write-ins before the month is out. It was great getting the chance to meet some similarly crazy people we had something in common with.
Anyone who is interested in joining in the November madness, we'd definitely encourage you to jump on in. We're only two days into the 30, and it wouldn't be too hard for you to catch up!
Happy noveling, all!
-Amy
Salmon Running Through The Library
I’m writing this blog in the Renton City Library. It’s an older building constructed sometime in the 1960’s, and it shows. It’s not likely to be renovated or replaced any time soon because of where it sits. It straddles the Cedar River, site of an annual run of salmon swimming upstream from the ocean to spawn in the fresh water they were born in.
I took a little video of the salmon run here: (Don’t attempt to adjust your volume, there’s no sound.)
As I write this, countless fish are slowly moving upstream about thirty feet below where I’m sitting.
Apparently it’s quite a city event, attracting people coming and going from the library to the edge of the railing, the very spot from which this video was taken.
A few ladies were sitting at what looked like an information table laden with literature. Nobody, including me, is going to talk to them. They have a haggard look. They wear fleecy sportswear and hold their hiking sticks on their laps. I get the sense that they use those sticks every day, all day. I’m sure that, whatever they do, they’re very good at it, but only if that doesn’t involve inviting people to talk to them and dispense information. They seem out of their element, and nobody seems to want to rub it in by trying to talk to them.
As a true introvert, I’m much more content to find the information I’m looking for online . . . where I don’t have to interact with anyone to find what I’m looking for. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Anyway, chances are these ladies would want to do me physical harm if they knew what my political views were, and they’re armed. I could only hope to feebly defend myself with my Neo and my canteen full of water, but I digress.
It’s strange, but living here I seem to have so much more contact with nature than at any time when I was living in Utah. Just running errands can become a dazzling afternoon drive to see the fall colors.
I lived here before, and somehow I managed to take the wonders of this place (like the library built over a freaking river!) for granted.
I think the only thing missing here is a glass-bottomed area of the library that would allow you to look down and see the river rushing by. That’s not likely to happen, nor are any other major renovations or replacements barring a generous grant or private donation. I’m willing to bet the environmental impact study alone would cost as much as city’s monthly budget. Who knows, though. The stimulus bill has taught me to never underestimate the power of Federal pork.
I’m writing this at the next best thing to that glass-bottomed area that’s never to be. I have a window seat on the other end of the building from the entrance, allowing me to look down on the river and watch cars passing on the bridges as it stretches towards the lake, all framed with emerald, yellow, and red leaves on the trees along the bank.
Check it out!
-Tom
I took a little video of the salmon run here: (Don’t attempt to adjust your volume, there’s no sound.)
As I write this, countless fish are slowly moving upstream about thirty feet below where I’m sitting.
Apparently it’s quite a city event, attracting people coming and going from the library to the edge of the railing, the very spot from which this video was taken.
A few ladies were sitting at what looked like an information table laden with literature. Nobody, including me, is going to talk to them. They have a haggard look. They wear fleecy sportswear and hold their hiking sticks on their laps. I get the sense that they use those sticks every day, all day. I’m sure that, whatever they do, they’re very good at it, but only if that doesn’t involve inviting people to talk to them and dispense information. They seem out of their element, and nobody seems to want to rub it in by trying to talk to them.
As a true introvert, I’m much more content to find the information I’m looking for online . . . where I don’t have to interact with anyone to find what I’m looking for. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Anyway, chances are these ladies would want to do me physical harm if they knew what my political views were, and they’re armed. I could only hope to feebly defend myself with my Neo and my canteen full of water, but I digress.
It’s strange, but living here I seem to have so much more contact with nature than at any time when I was living in Utah. Just running errands can become a dazzling afternoon drive to see the fall colors.
I lived here before, and somehow I managed to take the wonders of this place (like the library built over a freaking river!) for granted.
I think the only thing missing here is a glass-bottomed area of the library that would allow you to look down and see the river rushing by. That’s not likely to happen, nor are any other major renovations or replacements barring a generous grant or private donation. I’m willing to bet the environmental impact study alone would cost as much as city’s monthly budget. Who knows, though. The stimulus bill has taught me to never underestimate the power of Federal pork.
I’m writing this at the next best thing to that glass-bottomed area that’s never to be. I have a window seat on the other end of the building from the entrance, allowing me to look down on the river and watch cars passing on the bridges as it stretches towards the lake, all framed with emerald, yellow, and red leaves on the trees along the bank.
Check it out!
-Tom
Friday, October 16, 2009
Happy 30th Birthday, Tom!
Well, just like my subject line declares, Tom turned 30 on Monday. It was great that it turned out to be on my day off, so we got to spend the whole day together. While we didn't get very many pictures to catalog the day, the ones we got have the bonus of being full of fall colors.
Tom really wanted to eat at Ivar's for his birthday, so we headed over to our usual haunt (Lake Washington, where else?) picked him up some fish and chips, and had our lunch out on the pier.
This is actually the only picture I got with Tom in it. Not much of a 30th birthday commemoration photo, but at least it's proof that Tom really did get to eat seafood that day. This is the part where I admit that I'm not much of a seafood fan. I do like Ivar's fish and chips (sometimes, and only then the halibut ones), but I grabbed takeout from Panda Express before we went to the lake.
The trees are turning all sorts of crazy colors that I have never seen before. The pictures just don't do the colors justice; I swear there were a dozen different colors of red, yellow, orange, and coral there at the park.
After lunch, we went to a Toy Story 3D double feature. It was really cool to see the original movies in 3D. You could see a bigger difference in the technology development between the two movies because the first one had pretty 2-D backgrounds while the backgrounds in the second movie really came alive. We're looking forward to seeing the third movie when it comes out in another few months.
After the movie we relaxed and did a little cleaning at home before meeting Janet and John over at Hong's Garden Chinese restaurant for dinner. Talk about a crazy eating out day! The food was good, and afterward the four of us came back to our place where we sang happy birthday to Tom and had some cake and ice cream. It was about this point where I realized I had left the camera in the car I had meant to bring in for real birthday pictures, but none of us felt like making the trek downstairs to grab it. Oh, well.
One thing we've realized in getting closer to this age landmark is what little difference the passing of a year makes. Many things have changed for us this past twelve months, but we don't really feel any older.
-Amy
Tom really wanted to eat at Ivar's for his birthday, so we headed over to our usual haunt (Lake Washington, where else?) picked him up some fish and chips, and had our lunch out on the pier.
This is actually the only picture I got with Tom in it. Not much of a 30th birthday commemoration photo, but at least it's proof that Tom really did get to eat seafood that day. This is the part where I admit that I'm not much of a seafood fan. I do like Ivar's fish and chips (sometimes, and only then the halibut ones), but I grabbed takeout from Panda Express before we went to the lake.
The trees are turning all sorts of crazy colors that I have never seen before. The pictures just don't do the colors justice; I swear there were a dozen different colors of red, yellow, orange, and coral there at the park.
After lunch, we went to a Toy Story 3D double feature. It was really cool to see the original movies in 3D. You could see a bigger difference in the technology development between the two movies because the first one had pretty 2-D backgrounds while the backgrounds in the second movie really came alive. We're looking forward to seeing the third movie when it comes out in another few months.
After the movie we relaxed and did a little cleaning at home before meeting Janet and John over at Hong's Garden Chinese restaurant for dinner. Talk about a crazy eating out day! The food was good, and afterward the four of us came back to our place where we sang happy birthday to Tom and had some cake and ice cream. It was about this point where I realized I had left the camera in the car I had meant to bring in for real birthday pictures, but none of us felt like making the trek downstairs to grab it. Oh, well.
One thing we've realized in getting closer to this age landmark is what little difference the passing of a year makes. Many things have changed for us this past twelve months, but we don't really feel any older.
-Amy
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